10 suspected illegal immigrants arrested after traffic stop
by Jordan Johnson - Oct. 7, 2009 08:33 PM

Deputies arrested ten suspected illegal immigrants Tuesday on allegations of human smuggling, officials said.

Maricopa County sheriff's deputies were performing a traffic stop in the north Valley during a human-smuggling investigation when they arrested the alleged immigrants on Class 4 felonies, according to a statement from the Sheriff's Office.

The arrests came a few hours after a news conference hosted by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The conference was held in response to the federal government's decision to amend some of the sheriff's agreements with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

"The sheriff stated that his office will continue to be the only local law enforcement agency to enforce all aspects of state and federal immigration laws, despite politically-motivated attempts to curtail his authority by the federal government," Lt. Brian Lee said in the statement.

The release also said the federal government notified the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office of its intentions to strip sheriff's deputies of their ICE status on Sept. 22.

Arpaio said he is going to conduct another "crime suppression operation" on Oct. 16, according to the release.


http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 07-ON.html